Read lpr Configuration

I’ve written about lpr before; to me the ability to send a file to my printer from the command line is a magic trick. What if I want to know where the file is going to go before sending it?

lpr’s docs say:

The LPDEST and PRINTER environment variables are consulted first. If neither are set, the current default set using the lpoptions(1) command is used, followed by the default set using the lpadmin(8) command.

On my machine, neither of those environment variables are set. When moved the third choice, lpoptions, I saw my destination printer (output parsed for clarity):

lpoptions | xargs -n 1 | rg printer-info
printer-info=HP OfficeJet 8010 series

lpr is going to send my file to my HP OfficeJet 8010 unless I specify otherwise.

See man lpr for more info.